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I’ve been thinking a lot about affecting an aesthetic shift towards the rustic lately. When I moved into my first apartment I was really excited about a sort of 1950’s/mod aesthetic and a lot of that is still clearly visible in my home’s common space, despite the evolution of my taste in home decor. My terrarium and mossy accessories were among my first steps towards bringing a little bit of forest into my home.

Between my work with sculptor Petah Coyne, my time as a farmhand, and my general love for animals I have developed a fascination with all things dead and decaying. Every time I see a mounted piece of taxidermy at the flea market or in a curiosities shop or hanging on the wall of a bar or restaurant, I always linger thinking, “I want that…” But it never seemed fit to splurge on a deer head given my tight finances.

Then, a couple weeks ago I was browsing through a couple catalogs that showed up in my mailbox, and in West Elm I spotted some mounted animal head papier-mache sculptures and I thought, “Hey, maybe I could make one!”

Of course, while I was thinking about this and not acting upon it, I stumbled upon some good fortune at my family Seder last weekend. We were at my aunt and uncle’s home in Madison, NJ. My Aunt Lynn often finds deer antlers in the woods and has incorporated them into the chandelier in the dining room and we all got to talking about the antlers. At that moment I looked past my cousin across the table and out the door to the patio and noticed an incredible stag skull sitting on the step. I asked Aunt Lynn if she had plans for it and she told me about how she watched the vultures, waited for them to clean the carcass, and followed them through the woods to find it. So she (understandably) didn’t want to part with her prize.

But then she offered me a pair of antlers given to her by a friend and hunter which I was thrilled to accept in place of the skull.

So my new antlers and I headed back to the big city. In lieu of a fancy wooden plaque to mount them on, I whipped up a simple little something to act as a plaque visually with just some cardboard, fabric and glue.